4
’
:
|

MAY-JUNE, 1972

THE CANADIAN WESTERN LUMBER WORKER

ea
ee w

ANNUAL

The almost 100 delegates
attending the 22nd _ Annual
Delegated Meeting of Local 1-
vi IWA May 27-28 in Van-
couver, unanimously approved
a resolution requesting ‘‘the
Regional Council and Coast
Negotiating Committee to call
a strike as soon after the
contract expiry date as legally
possible if no settlement is
reached or no balloting on pro-
posed settlement terms is
being conducted at that time.”

Negotiations and the fallers
were the major topics
discussed during the first day.
The feeling was clear that the
delegates were fed up with the
employers stalling negoti-
ations and blaming the fallers
for the impasse.

It was also evident that the
vast majority of the meeting
was in complete sympathy
with the fallers’ demands. A
number of speakers demanded
that the Regional Council and
the Local aid the fallers
financially by opening the
Regional Strike Fund.
However, the Local officers
pointed out that the Region was
powerless to do this without
facing court action.

Finally after wide discussion
the meeting voted to pledge
support to the fallers for with-
drawal of the employers’
demands of an industry-wide
hourly rate and institute it with
a Union negotiated coast-wide

pricing arrangement for all
fallers.

Added to this was assurance
that the fallers’ problems
would recieve the same con-

sideration on their demands as .

any other Woodworkers at all
stages of Negotiations, in-
cluding any decisions on final
terms of settlement.

Other business of the two-
day meeting included dealing
with seventy resolutions, three
By-Law changes, approving
the Financial and Officers’
Reports, hearing from the
guest speakers, and electing
delegates to the Regional Con-
vention called for October.

Speakers were IWA Inter-
national 1st Vice-President
Keith Johnson, Regional 2nd
Vice-President Jack Munro,
and Local 1-217 President Syd
Thompson.

Johnson touched on the co-
ordinated bargaining meetings
of which a number have held
between Regions 1 and 3. He
suggested that it was im-
portant for the members to
understand what was going on
in Region 3’s negotiations
because the outcome of their
bargaining talks could have a
bearing on negotiations in B.C.

He then reported on the
action taken by the CLC
Convention at the request of
the IWA for second stage sanc-
tions against International
Pulp for its intrusion into the
IWA’s jurisdiction at Eurocan
and elsewhere.

Congress, he said, had
agreed to impose the second
stage of sanctions against
International Pulp and con-
tinue them until such time as
that union obeyed the CLC
Constitution and stopped
raiding affiliates.

Jack Munro in his address
suggested that the problems
encountered in this years’ and
previous, years’ negotiations
would never have materialized
had the members used their
power through political action.

He pointed out that year
after year unions in B.C. are
hammered to their knees by
anti-labour laws imposed by a
government hostile to the trade
union movement. Labour
people, he said, have to take an
interest in political action and
elect a government friendly to
them or face the possibility in
the near future of being
completely suppressed by
further restrictive legislation.

B.C labour, he stated, should
follow the examples set by
Manitoba and Saskatchewan
trade unions, who became so
fed up with the anti-labour
provincial governments deny-
ing them a place in the sun that
they took concerted action to
defeat them and bring in
governments’ willing to
recognize labour’s problems.

He went on to say that under
the NDP governments in those
two provinces, labour is now
respected and given a fair
hearing, something that was
impossible to obtain before.
B.C. unions for their own
protection must follow this
example, he concluded.

Syd Thompson attacked
John Billings of FIR for using
the fallers’ strike as an excuse
not to bargain with the IWA.
He stated at the moment the
two sides were like two armies

facing each other and unless
sanity was restored to the
employers, a big blow up was
not far away.

He tempered these remarks,
however, by saying that if the
Union members remained firm
in their demands, the industry
would move heaven and earth
to affect a settlement before a
strike was-called.

Regional Convention dele-
gates elected were: Ben
Thompson, Ed Gill, Jack Cook,
Bob . Pickering, Don Poirier,
Bill Wilson, Walter Kozij,
Waldemar Penner, Duane
Pedersen, Bill Goodwin, Dan
Otto, Jack MacKenzie, W. R.
Hutchinson, Howard Bush, Al
Bingham, Art Jones. Alter-
nates elected were: J. W.
Fleming, Terry Thomson,
George Kofoed, Alex Armella.

Resolutions approved in-
cluded demands for:

e Increased income
reductions.

e Improvement to the Canada
Pension Plan.

e The CLC to put organizers
into Kitimat to regain the IWA
operation lost to International
Pulp and to issue a special
leaflet to affiliates explaining
the Eurocan-Kitimat dispute.

e The Local Union to conduct

a survey to study the feasabil-
ity of managing a Hostel,
primarily for use by sick or
injured members and _ their
families.

e The International, Regional
and Local officers to intensify
and enlarge Union education
programmes for the members.

e The IWA to recommend to

tax

you DEE

the WCB that inspectors be
directed to personally contact
workmen on the jobsite
wherever inspections are being
conducted. :

Other resolutions dealt with
covered problems of mail
delivery, poor ferry trans-
portation, adequate pensions
on retirement, and the Unem-
ployment Insurance Act faults.

The Officers’ Report in
revieving the past years’
events placed emphasise on
the many problems. en-
countered in such areas as
administration, organization,
negotiations, safety, and
political action.

The Report also noted that
while the Union’s juvisdictional
problem with International
Pulp has not yet been resolved,
the Local has been successful
in organizing twenty new
operations and securing either
standard Master Agreements
or Letters of Understanding
with them.

The Report again came out
in support of .the New
Democratic Party by stating:

“It is the policy of your
Union to support the NDP and
this policy has been reiterated
year after year at meetings of
this kind. The enunciation of
this policy alone will never
elect any government. We
must recognize that the united
vote of the working people in
any part of the country far
exceeds any opposition vote,
which.means, of course, that at
any time the working people
can agree on the type of
government they want, that
government will be elected.’’ .

In keeping with the custo-
mary practice, the B.C. labour
movement played an active
role in the recent Canadian
Labour Congress convention. A
number of resolutions sub-
mitted by the B.C. Federation
of Labour and its affiliates on a
wide range of subjects, includ-
ing labour matters and
national and international
issues, were adopted. B.C. was
well represented in most de-
bates, with Federation Officers
outlining B.C. Fed policy on
Several key issues.

Major Disappointment
The major disappointment of

the Convention was the series

of procedural rulings which
prevented a proper debate of
the B.C. resolutions calling for
admission of the Fishermen’s
Union to the C.L.C.

After adoption of general

_resolutions calling on the
| Executive Council to make an
| all-out effort to bring in unions
| outside the Congress, the
| resolution referring directly to
| the Fishermen was ruled out of
| order. Attempting to speak in
| support of the resolution,

Secretary-Treasurer Haynes
was also ruled out of order.

In spite of this setback,
Federation Officers intend to
continue their fight to get the
Fishermen in the C.L.C. and
the Federation as quickly as
possible.

Support of Quebec
Labour

One of the highlights of the
Convention was debate on an
emergency resolution support-
ing the legitimate demands of
trade unionists in Quebec and
ealling for the immediate
release of jailed unionists.

Following stirring expres-
sions of support from all parts
of Canada, the resolution was
adopted virtually unani-
mously.

The Home Front

On the B.C. scene, the Feder-
ation has maintained close
liaison with striking civic
workers and has assisted Local
15 of the Office Employees with
a “hot’’ declaration in their
strike against Wire Rope In-
dustries. Coming up on June
24th a Political Action
Stewards’ Conference. Details
have gone out to all Federation
affiliates.

fae
g
ee
|

|

g

'
ha
| ae

bedi eat tbe

BOB BLANCHARD

BY LARGE MAJORITIES

ALL 1-217 OFFICERS
_ RETURNED TO OFFICE
IN REFERENDUM VOTE

Local 1-217 reports that all
the incumbent officers were re-
elected by large majorities in
the recent referendum vote.

Re-elected were ist Vice-
President Erich Ewert; 2nd
Vice-President Walter Poogh-
kay; 3rd Vice-President Mar-

WALTER POOGHKAY

ai & ae

vin Rasmussen; Conductor
Bob Blanchard.

Re-elected by acclamation at
the nominating meeting were:
President Syd Thompson;
Financial Secretary Doug
Evans; Recording Secretary
George Kowbel; Warden

Hector Poirier.

D

MARVIN RASMUSSEN